t until he had effected a number of very disagreeable
prophecies connected with unpropitious omens and internal torments, all
of which undoubtedly had a great influence on Ling's life beyond that
time.

Each day of the examination found Ling alternately elated or depressed,
according to the length and style of the essay which he had written
while enclosed in his solitary examination cell. The trials each lasted
a complete day, and long before the fifteen days which composed the full
examination were passed, Ling found himself half regretting that he had
not accepted his visitor's offer, or even reviling the day on which he
had abandoned the hereditary calling of his ancestors. However, when,
after all was over, he came to deliberate with himself on his chances of
attaining a degree, he could not disguise from his own mind that he had
well-formed hopes; he was not conscious of any undignified errors, and,
in reply to several questions, he had been able to introduce
curious knowledge which he possessed by means of his exceptional
circumstances--knowledge which it was unlikely that any other candidate
would have been able to make himself master of.

At length the day arrived on which the results were to be made public;
and Ling, together with all the other competitors and many distinguished
persons, attended at the great Hall of Intellectual Coloured Lights
to hear the reading of the lists. Eight thousand candidates had been
examined, and from this number less than two hundred were to be selected
for appointments. Amid a most distinguished silence the winning names
were read out. Waves of most undignified but inevitable emotion passed
over those assembled as the list neared its end, and the chances of
success became less at each spoken word; and then, finding that his
was not among them, together with the greater part of those present, he
became a prey to very inelegant thoughts, which were not lessened by the
refined cries of triumph of the successful persons. Among this confusion
the one who had read the lists was observed to be endeavouring to make
his voice known, whereupon, in the expectation that he had omitted a
name, the tumult was quickly subdued by those who again had pleasurable
visions.

"There was among the candidates one of the name of Ling," said he, when
no-noise had been obtained. "The written leaves produced by this person
are of a most versatile and conflicting order, so that, indeed, the
accomplished